Lunar Eclipse

The men attempt to relive their childhood by watching a lunar eclipse.

Cast (in order of appearance):, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

DVD: The Red Green Show – 2000 Season

Watch the episode on YouTube

Segment Summary
See also: Transcript

Plot: Red announces that, for the first time in 35 years, there will be a lunar eclipse, and he plans to get the lodge members to watch it with him from Rock Reef Point. Dalton and Mike propose that they make the occasion into an overnight camping trip, just as they did in their youth. They make the plans for the trip, and Winston even brings a video camera to record the occasion. As it turns out, however, although everyone does go along with Red, they are more interested either in watching television or turning in early than in watching the eclipse. To add insult to injury, Winston forgot to remove the lens cap on his camera during his recording.

Opening Scene: Red uses a worm-picker's pal and a siphon hose and fills the pal with ice water to walk around feeling cooler.

The Possum Lodge Word Game: Ed tries to guess the word "nervous" to win a chance to spend the entire day as the town mascot.

Handyman Corner: Red turns his old Possum Van into an air boat.

Midlife: Staring at stuff.

The Experts: Red, Dalton and Dwight discuss tips on how to correct a person's laziness.

Adventures: The men turn a drive-in theater into a golf driving range.

Red's Handyman Tips: Red attaches a cell phone to his back and calls himself using a rotary wall phone.

Famous People In Possum Lake History: Walt Gorgavich, Possum Lodge's daredevil.

Trivia

 * The Adventures segment was filmed at the Starlite Drive-In Theater (standing in for the Possum Lake Drive-In), which is located on Green Mountain Road near the then-Hamilton, Ontario suburb of Stoney Creek, Ontario (in 2001, a year after this episode first aired, it was amalgamated into Hamilton itself). This is revealed through a sticker that appears when Dalton announces that the other men have to leave.
 * As mentioned by Steve Smith on Red Green: Duct Tape Virtuoso, the siphon hose cooler was his own personal idea, which he got from astronauts, who would use warming or cooling fluid in their suits to regulate temperature. This scene was never rehearsed, and Smith learned it actually worked. When he said, "Boy, that water's cold," Smith wasn't acting.
 * In the same DVD, Smith mentions the air boat made out of the Possum Van. He was told that the Possum Van was no longer safe to drive and had to be gotten rid of. However, instead of just throwing the van away, Smith used it the way Red would use it: by recycling it as part of a Handyman Corner project. However, though the Possum Van was initially used, the actual boat used was a regular-sized van (the Possum Van was a stretch van). There was some further trickery involved in that it was pulled by another boat, and the propeller was operated by a man in the water who attached the fan to an electric drill.

Inside References

 * The Possum Lake Drive-In was previously mentioned by Mike in Hurricane Doug.

Real-World References

 * The Possum Lake Drive-In's marquee lists two movies playing at that theater, Jaws and A Farewell to Arms (it is unknown which of the two film adaptions of the latter are playing).
 * The same sticker mentioned above also features Toy Story 2, Dinosaur and the 2000 remake of Gone in 60 Seconds (the latter of which was coincidentally partially shot in nearby Hamilton, Ontario) as three other films playing at the Possum Lake Drive-In. This reveals that the Adventures segment was filmed just before, on or soon after June 9, 2000, which was the theatrical release date of the Gone in 60 Seconds remake.

Famous People

 * A photograph used to represent Walt Gorgavich is actually that of Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen after they were beaten by guards during the Battle of the Overpass at the Ford River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan in 1937.